Facebook (Beauty) Groups Are The Best... And Worst

The emergence of the utilization of groups on Facebook has brought out the absolute best in people, and the worst. Over the past five years I have been a member of several groups, both social and professional. It began as social and special interest, you know, like knitting groups or fitness groups. For the most part, my experiences have been mostly pleasant. I hadn’t joined any specific professional beauty groups until I got my microblading certification, and even then it was because that was a method available for the company. So I expanded my horizon and joined a couple other specialty beauty groups.

In social groups you can always count on some level of drama because, I mean, people with differing opinions in a small space right? Not to mention, the phrase “I’m entitled to my opinion” has become an nice way to say “I don’t care to hear your point of view”. The art of exchanging ideas is fading. While in these groups I try to navigate myself as objectively as possible. My experiences aren’t everyone else’s and vice versa. I’ve learned quite a bit about people, places, products, and life hacks from Facebook groups. Those are the moments that make them worth it.

For the most part, Facebook groups attempt to attract like-minded individuals, but then that’s also when folks’ competitive and combative streaks kick in and leads to the battle of opinions. This is especially prominent in beauty professional groups. Someone asks for opinions on a topic, product, issue, etc. then out comes all the “professional” opinions of what’s deemed to be right. Everyone has their preferred way(s) of doing things based on their trainings, certifications, level of experience, and areas of practice which oftentimes conflicts with someone else’s. That would be the perfect time to have an exchange of ideas and learn from one another, but no, that’d be too much like right. We have to get into pissing matches over what we think is better.

This is also when people begin to assign tones and intent to one’s response, which rarely goes well. I’ve witnessed so many threads go left because someone wasn’t able to pick up on sarcasm or misunderstood the OP’s intent. Less often do I see people actually acknowledge the misunderstanding and repair the exchange than them falling deeper into the debate. For civility to reign in a web debate is the unicorn of the internet.

Am I claiming to never have succumbed to the heightened emotions of an online debate? Absolutely not. I have and probably will again at some point, but I’m okay with not having the last word. A simple “okay” is sufficient enough for me to exit a conversation/debate that is going nowhere. I have no interest in getting my point across because a healthy debate involves listening to and understanding the opposition’s argument objectively to have an effective rebuttal.

So the next time you find yourself in the crosshairs of an internet debate think about this blog, laugh, and say, "okay".